In the first part of the series article, we covered the sectors – Edtech, Online Gaming, Entertainment Streaming Services and Medtech, that are most likely to experience a boom post-COVID-19. Continuing the list, let’s look at the 3 other sectors – Remote Working Platforms, Online Fitness, Ecommerce and delivery-based services.
5. Remote Working Platform
With professionals working from home, virtual meetings and use of remote working tools have become pretty common. With the temperamental changes that we are likely to witness, SaaS applications & Remote Working Tools facilitate the ongoing and future projects of businesses.
Virtual Meetings platform Zoom has boomed during the crisis and saw its stock price surge by over 100% in just two months. Google has made the premium features of its platform Google Hangouts free until the end of September.
Work from home is already becoming the new normal. Many workers are opting to work from home more frequently and platforms provided by Microsoft, Google, Zoom and others are likely to still be in high demand to keep colleagues connected even after offices reopen.
Some of the top online meeting platforms are:
· Zoom
Zoom Meetings offers a video conferencing and messaging solution for desktop and mobile devices. It provides HD video and audio, can support up to 1,000 participants at the same time, and up to 49 videos on a single screen. Meetings can be recorded and saved locally or to the cloud, along with transcripts that have searchable text to work with.
A team chat feature allows for file sharing, a searchable history, and a ten-year archive. Meetings can also be escalated into one-on-one calls through breakout rooms.
Founded: 2011
Founders: Eric Yuan
Headquarters: San Francisco, USA
· GoToMeeting
GoToMeeting is the standalone web-conferencing service provided by LogMeIn. It provides audio and video conferencing, as well as screen sharing.
GoToMeetings is mobile friendly. You can set up and start a conference from your smartphone, something some big brand software would struggle to do. There are settings to maximize call and image quality. Its mobile app is provided separately for Android and iOS, and both have high positive review volumes, which again makes a change from some other providers who struggle to balance quality and usability with mobile use. GoToMeeting also allows unlimited video meetings and secures these meetings with end-to-end encryption.
Founded: 2004
CEO: William Wagner
Headquarters: California, USA
· Cisco Webex
Cisco Webex is a video collaboration software for online training, webinars and remote support. In particular, it’s excellent for businesses that have legitimate security concerns. This teleconference software uses Transport Layer Security (TLS), third-party accreditations, encryption, firewall compatibility, single sign-on and secure scheduling options.
Cisco Webex provides seamless integration with Outlook and the ability to use it across different platforms including Mac, Windows and iPads. Its plans include screen sharing, HD video, unlimited meetings, Cloud recording and storage, etc.
Founded: 1995
Founders: Neal Kamel, Subrah Iyar
Headquarters: California, USA
6. Online Fitness
The online fitness industry was valued at almost US$ 100 billion before coronavirus hit. When gyms and fitness studios had to close temporarily, those able to offer their fitness services online reaped the benefits. Many trainers started providing personal classes on platforms like zoom or started making fitness videos on YouTube. Actor Chris Hemsworth’s fitness app Centr saw a 300% increase in downloads in April. But gradually with the lockdown lifting up, people have started going to gyms. So, the question remains that what will home fitness look like after the pandemic has passed? It is possible that the finance-conscious and those who appreciate the privacy and flexibility of exercising at home may be keen to stick to their in-house exercise schedules. Many home fitness fans are likely to keep up their pandemic workout plans, which will be good news for the online fitness industry.
Some of the famous online fitness platforms are:
· Fitness Buddy
Fitness Buddy is like a virtual personal trainer and nutritionist in one, with hundreds of workouts to tackle at home or at the gym, plus personalized meal plans and recipes. All exercises feature clear instructions and videos, and progressive workout plans make this ideal for beginners or advanced lifters.
Headquarters: Redwood City, USA
Founders: Bojan Bostjancic, Peter Kuhar, Tom Xu
· FiiT
Fiit offers real-time performance feedback and live leader boards that allows users to challenge their friends from around the world. It was founded by three friends with a vision to make the world’s best fitness classes accessible to everyone. Fiit was created to help people keep progressing and pushing the boundaries of what they think they can do.
Founded: 2017
Founders: Daniel Shellard, Ian McCaig, Sammi Adhami
Headquarters: London, UK
7. E-commerce & Delivery Based Services
With the number of COVID-19 cases increasing, people are refraining from gathering up at markets, grocery stores and public places. Therefore, the E-commerce & Delivery based sectors are booming at large. As people are procuring essential and non-essential commodities through eCommerce sites, the industry is to see a spike in customer-retail operations.
Given the advent of the technological revolution and interface management systems, this industry was already on a growth trajectory. But the recent turn of events has expedited the process. People who refrained from using online ordered utilities, services and commodities are now adapting to it for their daily needs.
Some of the top eCommerce platforms during the pandemic are:
· Coupang
Coupang is a South Korean e-commerce company. It places customers first and offers them possible prices and product selection within a highly convenient and personalized shopping environment. Coupang has set out to transform the end-to-end customer experience from revolutionizing last-mile delivery to rethinking how customers search and discover on a truly mobile-first platform. Coupang delivers 99.6 percent of its orders within 24 hours. It was named one of the “50 Smartest Companies in the World” by MIT Technology Review and “30 Global Game Changers” by Forbes.
The company has expanded its global footprint with its offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Los Angeles, New York, and Seattle.
Founded: 2010
Founder: Bom Kim
Headquarters: Seoul, South Korea
· Flipkart
The eCommerce giant Flipkart focuses on offering books, consumer electronics, fashion, lifestyle products as well as home essentials. It offers over 30 million products across 70+ categories. Flipkart’s technology has enabled it to deliver 8 million shipments per month and this number is only growing. In 2018 the company was acquired by the giant retail corporation, Walmart. It has raised US$ 9B in funding till now.
Founded: 2007
Founder: Binny Bansal, Sachin Bansal
Headquarters: Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
The growth of the economy is very uncertain for now, but for these 6 sectors, there could be a silver lining. After the storm passes by, these could likely emerge as the new Shangri-La for investments.
Click here for Part 1 of the Article.
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[…] Sectors that are likely to boom post-COVID-19 – Part 2 […]